MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
CAN-AM DUEL #2
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
FEBRUARY 15, 2018

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 – Race Winner:
THE DECISION BY CREW CHIEF ALAN GUSTAFSON WORK ON RACE SETUP AND NOT WORRY ABOUT THE POLE – DID THAT PAY OFF FOR YOU TONIGHT?
“Our NAPA Camaro ZL1 was really fast tonight. A big thanks to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. The Hendrick engine shop does a great job. Brought a lot of steam tonight. I am proud of Alan and our entire group. All of our partners – Hooters, Kelly Blue Book, Mountain Dew, Sun Energy, Valvoline and of course Chevrolet, like I said. We are excited to get to Sunday. We did this last year. We have the big one on Sunday – that is the main thing.”

HOW MUCH WERE YOU THINKING ABOUT WHERE TO POSITION YOURSELF?
“To be honest with you, I was kind of trying a bunch of stuff. I wasn’t sure what to do. This new package is a little different. The way these cars draft is a little strange compared to what we’ve seen in the past. I don’t 100% know that anyone has it figured out. I think we are all trying to learn and see what the best position is to be in and when is the best time to be there. We will go to work on Sunday and try to get them then.”

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 6th
ON HIS RACE AND HOW HIS RACE CAR FEELS:
“The race car needs some work. We didn’t handle as good as we needed it to. We had speed, I just… I’m out of control. So, got to work on that. With 40 cars that is going to be worse.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER CLICKLIST CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 10th
“We started off just a little too low. Just kind of learning right now, still kind of guessing at it a little bit. The car handled actually pretty decent. It was less of a handful to drive than looked like some of the cars in front of me. We just need to work a little bit more on raw speed in the car. Guys could get to the inside of me and kind of stall me out so I felt like that hurt us a little bit. It’s going to be a fine line between trying to get some raw speed and trying to get some handling. It’s going to be hotter on Sunday and we’ve just got to figure it out. So, you know, got a point out of it, the car is clean, so that is the most important thing. If I play it back I feel like I could have picked up a couple of spots there, but just got hung out there at the end. All-in-all it’s an okay night, learned some stuff and try to work on it for the (Daytona 500).

KASEY KAHNE, NO. 95 PROCORE CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 13th
“The car was pretty fast it was pretty good. I expect the track is going to be very tricky and the cars to be out of control a little bit. Working on them the next few days to try to get the most grip that you can and not crush your speed.”

DANICA PATRICK, NO. 7 GODADDY CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 14th
ON HER RACE:
“That was the first time I ever had any cars behind me. In practice we did about… less than 10 laps just on the back of a group. It’s a handful no doubt, especially, getting into the corner. Handling is definitely going to come into it. I mean it’s nighttime and cool out, but come Sunday in the sunshine it’s going to be all about handling. Yeah, it’s just kind of weird. Make almost no practice laps and then go race. For us, we just… for me, I mean, even at the end I was just playing it safe. We got really lucky we didn’t get in that first accident. But, yeah, just playing it safe at the end. It was a little too loose to push it. I mean if I push it I might have just spun by myself, which that isn’t a very good move.”

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 – Sidelined in crash on Lap 11
ONLY 11 LAPS OR SO, DID YOU HAVE ANY TIME TO LEARN ANYTHING?
“Not really I guess. Different conditions obviously than we will have on Sunday. I just hate that we tore up another car and my guys are going to have to get another Credit One Bank Chevy prepared before tomorrow morning practice. We just didn’t really want to crash today. That stinks. I haven’t seen a replay or anything but it kind of looked like the No. 9 (Chase Elliott) got into the No. 20 (Erik Jones) in the middle of the corner. Seemed like we were all good then they started spinning on exit and I had nowhere to go. Part of superspeedway racing–that’s why we love it.”